Local search: A new hidden line elimination algorithm to display spherical coordinate equations

Local Search, a new hidden line elimination algorithm, is presented. Local Search is a variant of the Scan-Line algorithm. Its performance is compared to that of two other Scan-Line algorithms for elimination of hidden lines from displays defined by spherical coordinate equations. In this paper, metrics are developed to evaluate the theoretical worst-case performance of each algorithm as a function of the display's complexity. Our performance evaluation is restricted to algorithms which can be implemented on personal computers. Data on the run-time performance of each algorithm were then collected to validate the worst case metrics. These data substantiate the hypothesis that, for complex displays, the Local Search algorithm performs hidden line elimination more efficiently than other Scan-Line algorithms.